Munich Kirchentag Rally Attracts 400,000

NEWS

CHRISTIANITY TODAY

An estimated 400,000 Protestants assembled for an outdoor rally which ended the ninth German Evangelical Church Day Congress in Munich August 16.

The gigantic crowd assembled around a 120-foot steel cross on Theresien Meadow, a huge lawn area famous for Munich’s traditional beer festivals.

Launched at Essen in 1949, the Church Day movement has become a permanent institution with the state-supported Evangelical (Lutheran) Church in Germany. Virtually all Protestant groups in Germany have endorsed the Church Day movement.

For the first time, the Church Day congress was held in a largely Catholic area. Many Roman Catholic families opened homes to visiting Protestants.

This year’s congress also was the first at which relations with Roman Catholics came up for official discussion. (German Catholics also have a Church Day known to them as the Katholikentag. Protestants call theirs the Kirchentag.)

The five-day assembly also took up study of the ecumenical movement and the influence of mass media. There were seven mass rallies, more than 200 other assorted smaller meetings, 74 cultural events, and 37 performances of church music. Meetings held in conjunction with the congress were sponsored by the German free churches, the German Evangelical Missionary Council, and a number of professional groups.

Still another new feature of the 1959 congress was a counselling service that made theologians, lawyers, doctors, and psychiatrists available for individual consultation on personal problems. Facilities for private confessions were provided.

Leaders of the congress sought to affirm that a spiritual unity exists in Germany despite the fact that the country still is divided. Ten “working groups” explored religious problems as well endeavoring to consider social questions in the light of religion.

Bishop Otto Dibelius of Berlin, head of the Evangelical Church in Germany, took the occasion to denounce continued curtailment of personal freedom by the East German regime.

The bishop said it was a “monstrosity” that a Communist state should dictate where citizens may travel and what they may think. His reference was to a decision of Soviet Zone authorities that they would only issue 1,000 travel permits to East Germans who wanted to attend the Munich congress.

Communists attacked the meetings as a “tool of atomic armament and war preparations against the socialist camp, thus destroying even the last remnants of its all-German character.”

West German church leaders had hoped that 30,000 Soviet Zone Protestants might attend the congress. At the last all-German congress, held at Frankfurt on Main in 1956, more than 20,000 East Germans participated. Another congress had been planned for Erfurt, Thuringia, in the Soviet Zone, in 1957, but Church Day leaders called it off because of restrictive conditions imposed by Communist authorities.

Among foreign guests at the congress were representatives of the World Council of Churches and the Lutheran World Federation, both of which have their headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland.

Among prominent speakers were Bishop Ralph Manikam of the Tamil Evangelical Lutheran Church of India; Archbishop Jaan Kiivit, of the Lutheran Church of Estonia; and Dr. George F. MacLeod, former moderator of the Church of Scotland (Presbyterian).

Dr. Reinhold von Thadden-Trieglaff is president of the German Church Day movement. Dr. Reimer Mager, of Dresden in the Soviet Zone, is vice president.

The chiming of eight bells, designed to be installed ultimately in the Reformation Church in Speyer, officially opened the congress. Cast in a Karlsruhe bell foundry, they were transported to Munich on a convoy of flatbed trailers made available by the U. S. Army.

A highlight of the closing rally was a question and answer session broadcast over loudspeakers which stressed the importance of the congress theme “Ye Shall Be My People.” The session also summarized conclusions reached by the “working groups.”

Among scores of West German public leaders present were outgoing President Theodor Heuss, who hailed the Church Day movement as an instrument of “reconciliation and understanding;” and Vice Chancellor Ludwig Erhard, who brought a message of greetings from Chancellor Konrad Adenauer.

Adenauer, a Roman Catholic, declared that with the “fundamentals of Christianity being attacked by atheistic forces with unprecedented vigor, Christians of all confessions are called today to stand together more than ever.”

Nearly all of the Congress’ closing events and many of the earlier ones were broadcast to East Germany by West German and West Berlin radio and television systems.

Lectures and discussions were held in halls of the Munich exhibition ground and were attended by some 40,000 persons, including 3,000 from foreign countries.

One of the key speakers was Dr. Joachim Beckmann, president of the Evangelical Church of the Rhineland, who said that while the church, by its essence, is “no political factor and has no political message, God does not relieve it or individual Christians of political responsibility.”

Days Of Prayer

From The President

President Eisenhower is calling on Americans to observe October 7 as a “National Day of Prayer.”

Eisenhower made the appeal in an official proclamation, the eighth annual such document, authorized by a Congressional resolution in 1952. October 7 was designated in order that the observance would fall on the first Wednesday of October, as in previous years, enabling churches to plan for the observance.

Here is this year’s proclamation:

Let us give thanks for the bounty of providence which has made possible the growth and promise of our land.

Let us give thanks for the heritage of free inquiry, sound industry and boundless vision which have enabled us to advance the general welfare of our people to unprecedented heights.

Let us remember that our God is the God of all men, that only as all men are free can liberty be secure for any, and that only as all prosper can any be content in their good fortune.

Let us join in vigorous concern for those who now endure suffering of body, mind or spirit, and let us seek to relieve their distress and to assist them in their way toward health, well-being and enlightenment.

Finally, let us rededicate ourselves and our nation to the highest loyalties which we know, and let us breathe deeply of the clear air of courage, preparing ourselves to meet the obligations of our day in trust, in gratitude and in the supreme confidence of men who have accomplished much united under God.

From An Admiral

A special day of prayer (September 15) is being proposed to coincide with Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev’s arrival in the United States.

Admiral Ben Moreell, noted industrialist and an active Episcopalian layman, summoned leaders of numerous citizens groups (total constituency: some 10 million) “to explore the implications of this visit and to attempt to ascertain the prevailing view of an appropriate posture for the American people with respect thereto.”

“There was general consensus,” Moreell said after meeting with these leaders, “that while we should refrain from demonstrations of hostility, it would be right and proper that Mr. Khrushchev’s arrival in this country should be set aside as a day of prayer in all the churches of the land.”

He also urged that all cities on Khrushchev’s itinerary observe the day of his visit by holding special church services.

Moreell’s prayer plea won widespread support from prominent clergymen. Among those who endorsed the project were evangelist Billy Graham; Dr. Frederick Brown Harris, Senate chaplain; and Dr. George L. Ford, executive director of the National Association of Evangelicals.

Protestant Panorama

• Thirty-five African members of the eccentric Matswanist sect reportedly died in a mob scene near Brazzaville, capital of the Middle Congo, last month. About 100 others were said to have been injured when police tried to evict the defiant Matswanists from a compound.

• Appointment of Major General George P. Vanier as Governor-General of Canada makes him the first Roman Catholic to hold the office. All his predecessors have been Anglicans.

• English Bishop Mervyn Stockwood startled Anglican ecclesiastical circles last month by announcing that he would ban the use of the 1928 communion service in all churches. In a letter to clergy and lay people of the Southwark diocese, he said “the only communion service I can countenance is that of 1662, with such minor deviations as are generally accepted.”

• Special services for Australia’s horse racing fraternity—believed to be without precedent anywhere—were scheduled in Roman Catholic, Anglican and Presbyterian churches this month, marking the 101st year of Australian horse racing. Dr. A. Harold Wood, president general of the Methodist Church of Australia, said he opposed participation.

• The National Sunday School Association is holding three conventions this year: October 7–9, San Jose, California; October 21–23, Atlanta, Georgia; November 11–13, Columbus, Ohio.

• Finishing touches are being put on the first Mormon chapel to be built in Palmyra, New York, birthplace of Mormonism. The chapel is located near Hill Cumorah, scene of an annual Mormon pageant.

• A bill designed to close discount houses and supermarkets on Sundays became law in Pennsylvania this month.

• New Mexico safety officials are calling on clergymen to put over the idea that drivers “should not leave God behind” when they enter their cars.

• The Rev. Edmund Burritt Galloway celebrated his 100th birthday August 16 by attending the First Church of the Nazarene at Santa Ana, California. He sang a solo and assisted in the dedication of a great-grandchild. His son, the Rev. Fletcher Galloway, preached.

• Having secured FCC approval, the Evangelical Covenant Church of America hopes to have a 5,000-watt station on the air at Nome, Alaska, by year-end.

• Two nudist magazines are seeking federal court action which would compel the post office to grant them second class mailing privileges.

• Bishop Hazen G. Werner officiated at cornerstone-laying ceremonies for the new Methodist Theological School on a 70-acre campus at Stratford, Ohio this month. Buildings are scheduled for completion by spring at a cost of $2,700,000.

• “This Is the Life,” religious TV drama produced by the Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod, begins its eighth year this fall. The half-hour weekly presentation is carried by more than 300 stations in the United States, Canada and overseas.

• A second contingent of young West Germans are taking up work in Norway in repentance for suffering caused by the Nazis in World War II. The project is being sponsored by the Evangelical Church in Germany.

• The Methodist Board of Temperance executive committee says it opposes “at this time” union of the agency with the Board of Social and Economic Relations, which has approved the idea of a merger, and the Board of World Peace, which disapproved it.

• The Church of God school in Portland, Oregon, formerly called Pacific Bible College, will hereafter be known as Warner Pacific College.

• The Methodist Church is making available a 27-minute film designed to help understand problems involved in an interfaith marriage.

Church And State

Taxes For Theology

“The Congress reaffirms the principle and declares that the States and local communities have and must retain control over and primary responsibility for public education. The national interest requires, however, that the Federal government give assistance to education for programs which are important to our defense.”—National Defense Education Act.

The deteriorating wall of separation between Church and State showed a new crack this month: for the first time in U. S. history, the federal government appropriated public funds for direct aid to a theological seminary.

U. S. Commissioner of Education Lawrence G. Derthick said New York’s Union Theological Seminary is getting five graduate fellowships in theology under provisions of the National Defense Education Act of 1958.

The law does not specifically mention theology. But the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare interpreted it to include provision for theological study. Many proponents of Church-State separation charge that the law and its implementation are unconstitutional. (CHRISTIANITY TODAY expressed anxieties about the law in its December 8, 1958 issue.)

The Union grant drew immediate criticism from Protestants and Other Americans United, who characterized the development as “another step toward full-fledged federal subsidy for the training of ministers and priests,” and from the National Association of Evangelicals.

“Few citizens are given enough of the facts to know the seriousness of the precedents which are being set,” said the Rev. Donald H. Gill, NAE assistant secretary of public affairs.

The five fellowships, awarded to four Protestant ministers and an Army chaplain, are among 997 being given to assist graduate students pursuing doctoral degrees with the intention of becoming college teachers. They are under the same program which gives Emory University (Methodist) three fellowships for Old Testament study and Dropsie College (Jewish) three for training in comparative religion.

The Union students will get $6,600 for a three-year program. The seminary will get up to $37,500 as compensation for cost of instruction.

A POAU spokesman said his organization was studying the possibility of testing the legality of the grants.

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